The United States and Japan will step up their defence cooperation to deal with the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea as tensions in East Asia remain high, officials from the two allies said on Thursday.

Lawrie does not appeal Supreme Court case

The Northern Territory's former opposition leader has halved her legal battles by deciding not to appeal a judgment she maintains is "wrong".

Delia Lawrie had until Wednesday afternoon to appeal the April 1 ruling by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Southwood, who said she had not been denied procedural fairness by the commissioner of an inquiry into a controversial land deal.

Commissioner John Lawler found she had acted unfairly and with bias when she bypassed the usual tenders process in order to give Unions NT exclusive access to a $3 million historic Darwin site for a zero-rent 10-year lease.

She decided not to appeal because the case had already taken a very high personal toll, she said.

"I'm not prepared to put my family at any further financial risk, which an appeal would do," Ms Lawrie told reporters.

"I've done nothing wrong and I stand by the cabinet decision to save the Stella Maris site."

Justice Southwood also found Ms Lawrie and her lawyers had tendered affidavits containing false statements to the court and tried to discredit and undermine Mr Lawler and his inquiry - which she denies.

Related Articles

But in court, Justice Southwood granted police access to the entire court file including affidavits, transcripts and exhibits, as they investigate whether Ms Lawrie gave false testimony or made a false declaration, or attempted to pervert the course of justice.

The affidavits were filed but not relied upon in court.

Ms Lawrie must now cover Commissioner Lawler's court costs.

His lawyer Paul Maher told the court on Thursday he would seek to make her lawyers Alistair Wyvill and Cathy Spurr equally liable.

He told reporters costs would run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and he was concerned Ms Lawrie wouldn't be able to cover them herself.

"If she scratched out a cheque we wouldn't be here today," he said.

Ms Lawrie said it was completely inappropriate to comment on her lawyers sharing her court costs.